Irvine football avoids any complications with victory over Sonora

IRVINE — Faced with a potential three-way tie for third place in the Iota League if it lost, Irvine struck early – and quickly – against Sonora. The Vaqueros did their part to prevent the playoffs from becoming complicated by scoring a 42-15 victory over visiting Sonora on Friday behind the play of two-way standout Sina Saferzadeh. “I was bummed that we couldn’t win the league title, but honestly, it’s OK because all that matters now is getting that CIF title and I think we’re in a great spot,” said Saferzadeh, who completed 8 of 10 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, and rushed seven times for 105 yards and a score. As a defender, Saferzadeh intercepted a pass on the third play of the game. Three plays later as a quarterback, Saferzadeh passed to Smith Spivey, who ran untouched for most of the 43 yards to the end zone. It was one of four scores in the first half as Irvine improved to 7-3 overall, 3-2 in league and finished alone as the league’s third-place team. As such, the Vaqueros earned an automatic playoff berth in the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Sonora could have created a three-way tie for third place if it had delivered an upset, but the Raiders – a much younger team with better days ahead of them – were unable to keep up. Turnovers on their first two possessions – the second from the Irvine 15-yard line after two touchdowns had been nullified by penalties – led to Irvine touchdowns. Irvine scored on all four of its first-half possessions. The second touchdown was set up by the aforementioned interception in the end zone by Zephaniah Kim, which preceded a seven-play, 80-yard drive that ended with Seamus Hoffman’s 1-yard run. The third touchdown capped a 67-yard drive that ended with Saferzadeh keeping the ball and running around left end for 33 yards as Irvine extended its lead to 21-0 with 8:16 left in the half. The fourth touchdown answered Sonora’s only first-half score. Saferzadeh passed 21 yards to Kyle Fogarty in the far right corner of the end zone for a 27-7 advantage. The only time Sonora broke through was on a somewhat bizarre drive that featured an officiating mistake. Quarterback Levi Santos headed toward the end zone – at least 15 yards downfield – after he had faked a handoff that was so good, the referee whistled the play down because the running back without the ball was tackled in the backfield. It would have been a 51-yard touchdown, but was instead a do-over. Five minutes later, Sonora completed the 15-play, 68-yard drive when Alexsay Nazaroff scored from 1, the first of his two scores. “(Nazaroff) is a dude, and that’s what we were most concerned about,” Irvine coach Tom Ricci said of one of only three senior starters on the Sonora offense. “I think (coach Andrew Cedergren) is doing a great job with this team and they’re going to be a tough team to beat next year.” Nazaroff – who rushed 16 times for 154 yards – also scored from 25 from the wildcat formation after replacing Santos, who missed the second half with a shoulder injury. “We always show great heart, we always show great effort,” said Cedergren, who is in his first season at Sonora. “We had a hard time stopping them, but we had moments. A couple things break different ways, it’s a different ball game. My message to the team all year is to play to the last play, and we did that. We were not always perfect, obviously, but their attitude and effort has always been there and I’m proud of them for that.” With the first-team linemen still in the game, Irvine opened the second half with a 50-yard drive that ended with Saferzadeh throwing 12 yards to Fogarty for a 35-7 lead. The scoring ended when Irvine’s Jordan Yeroushalmi returned the last of three Irvine interceptions for a 15-yard score. Ricci was proud of the way his team responded after last week’s 21-20 loss to Troy, which won the league title with a 41-24 victory over El Toro. “The guys that we count on came up big for us, (Saferzadeh and Spivey), our defense overall, defensive end Cole Reidel – all our guys that we count on week in and week out came up big in this game and that’s what I wanted to see,” Ricci said. “We wanted our workhorses to do damage. That’s what our goal was. Our goal was to not beat ourselves – we’ve had a couple of those games.” It didn’t happen Friday. It didn’t come close.